Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mike Casey: Rewiring Aotearoa CEO on the political promises to make plug-in solar available in New Zealand

Transcript

Mike Casey: Rewiring Aotearoa CEO on the political promises to make plug-in solar available in New Zealand · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So plug-in solar panels could be on your shelves in
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: your local Bunnings or you might attend by early next
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: year if the National Party are re-elected. And Simeon Brown
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: yesterday told Heather Dupacy-Allen that a six-month time frame is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: totally doable.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Put it in a container, get it on a ship,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: bring it out here and get it on the shelves.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: So joining me is Mike Casey, who's the CEO of
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Rewiring Aotearoa.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Morning, Mike.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Good morning.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Andrew. How are we?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Very good. Obviously, you're very excited about it. Is it
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: as simple as just getting it in a container and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: getting it on the shelves and it's here in six months?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: That's right. New Zealand's a pretty small country. I think
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: there's actually about five million installations in intercontinental Europe now.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: UK's just approved it as well. It's happening in America.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Not hard to get them on containers, bring them over
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: and start bringing New Zealanders' powers bills down, which is
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: pretty cool.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Simeon says you can install them yourself. It's as easy
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: as plugging in a toaster.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: It's pretty much the way it works. You buy a
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: couple of solar panels from Punnings, take them home, take
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: out the cord, plug it into the power socket, and
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: away you go.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Is there a regulator? Is there a little bit of
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: kit that you have to sort of, you know, fool
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: with so it actually pumps the power into the house
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: as opposed to taking it out, which a plug normally does?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, there's a special microinverter on the edge of the
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: solar panels, and that microinverter takes the power from the
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: solar system and converts it into power that the appliances
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: in your home on that circuit can use, which is
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: pretty cool. And it's very, very safe because the way
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: these inverters work is they do not turn on until
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: they actually detect that they're plugged in and then they
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: can read New Zealand's grid.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Where do you put the panels?
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: You can put them outside. A lot of Germans are
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: hanging them on their balconies. It's also called balcony solar.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Put them on the lawn on an A-frame, stick them
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: up on a fence. Solar panels are getting so cheap now,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: they're probably cheaper than fencing. So there's lots of different
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: things that you can do.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: So I'm just thinking about my place. I do have
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a power plug outside, which I use, you know, for
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the water blaster. And so then I could just plug
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: it into that and just leave the whole panel outside
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: there weather-resistant.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: That's the ideal situation. I mean, many people might be
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: running the cord in through a window or something to
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: start off with. But yeah, getting a plug outside installed
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: by an electrician is probably the way to go moving forward.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: How much?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Well, this is the number one question. We don't know
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: because no retailers in New Zealand are doing them yet.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: But it's probably in the vicinity of about $ 500 to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: $ 1, 500 is what it would actually cost a European. And
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: that will save you somewhere between 7% and 14% on
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: your power bill every year. However, if you're one of
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: those real nerdy power consumers like me that likes to
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: put everything on timers and do it absolutely perfectly. We're
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: seeing people in the UK get up to 30% discount.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Could it charge up an EV overnight?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: No, definitely not. The sun is not shining, obviously, overnight.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: The number one thing, the average driver in New Zealand
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: drives about 230 kilometers a week. So at some point
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: during that time, the car will be home. And yes,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: technically that solar from that plug-in solar system will feed
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: into the car. But the number one thing is plug-in
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: solar is not going to have nearly the return on
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: investment of a proper solar system. So it's really good
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: for renters. It's really good for people that don't have
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: access to mortgages and things like that to get a
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: proper solar system on their roof. But if you are
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: in a place where you've got $ 20, 000 on your mortgage
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: and you're looking to really save on your power bill,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: I'd still recommend looking at putting a proper system on
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: your roof.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Will people buy the plug-ins?
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, I absolutely like it. We've seen how popular they
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: are overseas. I mean, I think it's going to require
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: a little bit of education. There's going to be a
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: new thing for New Zealanders, but you know what I'm like.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: David Seymour yesterday called me a ferret on crack when
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: it comes to this stuff. So we'll just keep talking
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: and people will keep buying. And the number one thing
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: is if you're able to start doing it, it's not
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: too long before you start doing it.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Mike, I love your enthusiasm. I won't let Simeon put
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: it down. And I thank you so much for your
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: time this morning. All the best, buddy.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, I've got one more question for you. Will we
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: win the second bit or so?
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, mate, absolutely, without a doubt.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Well, there we go.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I can't wait for that one.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, true. And I thank you.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.